As I mentioned previously, next up would most likely be another Total Battle Miniatures village set. I decided to tackle the Russian village I plan to use for my Crimean War games. So here it is finished.
Le Coq Fou: Random Wargaming
Saturday, March 16, 2024
6/10mm Russian Village
Friday, March 15, 2024
Playtest of Liber Militum Tercios
I did some things wrong but I got a good idea of how the basic mechanics work. I imagine there will be more to learn with cavalry, artillery and terrain on the tabletop (especially all of it present at the same time). The Spanish performed poorly because of bad dice rolls and my assumption that tercios would be significantly more devastating in melee. They aren't. The tercios benefit from being more resilient and harder to flank but that is about it. I enjoyed the rules and look forward to more playtest and a proper game.
Sunday, March 10, 2024
6/10mm Village and Fleurus
If there's one thing that I neglect regarding the hobby, it's scenery. I own a good amount of it but the majority of it stays in storage...unpainted.
A few years back, during the pandemic, I painted up 10mm Thirty Years War armies based on the Battle of Fleurus (1622). The armies are painted but I have yet to actually game with them. Initially I had planned to use In Deo Veritas as a ruleset but think that I will try Liber Militum's Tercios rules instead.
The battlefield of Fleurus has fields, woods, some roads and a small farm/hamlet. The farm was fortified and occupied by a Spanish contingent of shot. The problem is that while I had something suitable, it wasn't painted up.
That something suitable was a 17th century village from Total Battle Miniatures (TBM). The TBM kits usually consist of a rubber footprint of the village with recesses for the buildings. I finally painted up the village this weekend and I'm pleased with the results.
Same village with a building removed to fit in a base of Spanish shot. I should add that the village is advertised as 6mm (I'd say it's a big 6mm) but I am using it for 10mm. I find that I prefer to go down one scale for most of my scenery, unless I am playing skirmish or close to 1:1 scale. For my Fenian project, I am using 10mm buildings with 10mm figures.
When I placed the order for this village with TBM, I also ordered an Italian village and a Russian village. I figure the Italian village can see the tabletop when I manage to get my 10mm Risorgimento armies finished and the Russian village is for my Crimean War project (also 10mm). The interesting thing about the Italian village is that it is a one-piece resin model with the buildings and base altogether.
I might tackle that Russian village next since I will have that Crimean War project that needs finishing (still quite a bit of Turks to paint up). Then again, I have some half-painted 10mm Fenians and Spanish Civil War International Brigade on my table....decisions, decisions, decisions...
Desert Spitfires (and other assorted aircraft)
After taking an exhale from the mad dash of the Pendraken and Badger Games painting competition projects, I decided to paint something as a bit of a diversion. In my previous post, I mentioned that I had recently read Angels in the Sky about the formation of the Israeli Air Force in the 1948 war. I decided to paint up the various aircraft I plan to game the war with. On this cold, windy Sunday I hastily snapped some photos of my aircraft. I apologize in advance for the less than stellar light quality and photos.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
When the Dust Settles...
As mentioned in my previous post, I have directed most of my hobby attention to the Pendraken painting competition the past few months. I was also convinced into participating in Badger Games painting competition which is to be judged by the attendees of Adepticon. The model is a Space Goblin "musician"...such an awesome sculpt from Regiment Games (see below).
I have to have him shipped to Badger by March 15 so I need to get him finished ASAP. I have to admit that I'm a bit burnt out from the Pendraken competition and it's been a while since I painted 28mm or Gobbos for that matter. At this point I'm.just hoping not to embarrass myself with my entry.
When the dust settles from the two competitions, I will ultimately return to my 10mm Crimean War project. Before that return, I think I might indulge in a small diversion project.
I'm a big fan of Tumbling Dice's Wings at War rulesets. Their free game is Desert Spitfires which is a quick play set to refight the air conflict during the 1948 Arab/Israeli war.
It's a pretty interesting conflict, Israeli had volunteer and mercenary pilots flying Czech versions of Me-109s against Egyptian Spitfires. The Israelis ultimately upgraded to Spitfires (and some Mustangs) and the Egyptians added Macchi fighters to their air fleet. B-17s, T-6 Harvard's, C-47s, and plenty of other planes also saw action in the war.
I had previously tackled (and fumbled) this project years before. Figures had been purchased and priming had occurred but it languished. When I looked at my aircraft from the previous attempt, they were loose and mixed in with other projects. I decided to order some new planes for the project to start fresh. Tumbling Dice sent a small envelope with my order in record time.
The impetus for restarting this project is that I've been reading Angels in the Sky by Robert Gandt which is an awesome account of the early days of the Israeli Air Force. It's a very readable book and I highly recommend it.
I think it will be a nice little break from the pressures of painting for competitions and will give me something I can easily finish before resuming the grind of finishing my Crimean War project.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
Pendraken Painting Competition 2024
I haven't posted in a bit but I have been painting...I took a hiatus from my various projects to paint up some entries for the Pendraken Painting Competition. I can't believe it's been full year since I was in this same position for the 2023 competition. I still remember making the conversions to the little Italian tankette and trying to figure out how they were painted up in the Spanish Civil War. So much of my life has dramatically changed for me in 2023, it really wasn't a good year. Here is hoping that 2024 brings more joy and less sadness.
Anyway, I decided the competition would be a good opportunity to kickstart some new projects and resurrect a few dormant ones.
First up is an M24 Chaffee in French service during the Indo-Chinese war, this is "11". I added some homemade storage and a radio wire. The Chaffee (or Bison as the French called them in the war) is a small little bugger but they were thought of quite highly by the French as they offered good firepower, protection and low ground pressure.
I didn't really do anything spectacular with the basing as these are, first and foremost, gaming pieces.
Next up is a Viet Minh platoon with attachments. These guys are based for Five Core Company Commander. Each big base is a section of infantry, supported by some support weapons and attachments: a sniper, commander, bazooka team and heavy machine gun. I painted them in a mix of khaki, yellow green and grey green to capture the polygot nature of the uniforms.
The sniper is actually a Japanese sculpt but since the Viet Minh didn't have a sniper in their range and they used a lot of old Japanese kit, I figured it would be quite suitable.
Next up we visit the late 17th century, specifically 1685 and the battle of Sedgemoor. I painted up Kirke's Lambs, the Queen Dowagers Regiment of Foot. I have painted this notorious unit before in 15mm. If you follow my blog, you may remember I painted up some of the rebels for the 2022 Pendraken competition, after that I let the project languish for nearly 2 years before I tackled these fellas.
From 1685, we go back to the future to 1866 with the wacky invasion of Canada by Irish American veterans (Fenians) of the Civil War. First up, we have some Canadian militia. The mounted arm of the Canadian force is the Governor General's Bodyguard in their dark blue uniforms trimmed in white. The GGBG weren't present at the Battle of Ridgeway but we're involved in some of the peripheral actions.
Here we have 3 companies of Fenian invaders. I painted them in uniform bits described in Peter Vronsky's book about the Fenian Invasion and gave them a conjectural Fenian flag. The Fenians wore surplus ACW kit, some of which was trimmed in green, civilian garb and green uniforms bits.
The figures were sourced from the Pendraken ACW range. I quite like the ragtag look that's tied together by bits of blue and green.